Habakkuk 3:14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Thou didst strike, &c.— Green, as we have seen in the former note, joins this clause to the 13th verse. Houbigant reads it thus, Thou with thy sceptre didst strike through the head of his princes, who rushed forth with violence to destroy me, and who rejoiced like those who are about to devour the poor secretly. Green reads the latter part of the verse, When they came out as a whirlwind to scatter us, their rejoicing was as when about to devour the poor man in secret. When the kings of Canaan had recovered their spirits, they entered into a confederacy against the Israelites, and set upon them in battle with such fury, as if they would have swept them away, like a stormy wind. Our whirlwind gives us but a faint idea of the scorching wind of the East, which was frequently employed as an instrument of divine vengeance, and brought with it certain destruction. See Job 27:21.Jeremiah 23:19; Jeremiah 30:23. The reader will observe, that, in this and the seventh verse, the prophet speaks in the person of an Israelite, who lived in the days of Joshua. In the 18th and 19th verses we find him speaking in the person of a captive Jew at Babylon. He does the former to give life to his poetry; the latter, to give confidence to the Jewish people. See Green.